East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine (EASTM - Universität Tübingen)

Jami, Catherine

10
In Memory
of
Prof. Yabuuti Kiyosi
Presentation
Catherine Jami
[Catherine Jami is a senior researcher at the French Centre National de la Re-
cherche Scientifique. Her current research is on the reconstruction of mathe-
matics and astronomy in early Qing China. Together with Peter Engelfriet and
Gregory Blue, she is the editor of Statecraft and Intellectual Renewal in Late
Ming China. The Cross-cultural Synthesis of Xu Guangqi (1562-1633).]
*   *   *
During the XXIst International Congress of History of Science (Mexico City, 8-
14 July 2001) the International Society for the History of East Asian Science,
Technology, and Medicine held a session in memoriam Prof. Yabuuti Kiyosi
(1906-2000), its first, and hitherto only, honorary member.1 The Congress was,
it seemed, a most appropriate occasion for such an event, since Prof. Yabuuti
had been an active member of the international community of historians of
science; he had organised, in particular, the XIVth ICHS, which took place in
Tokyo and Kyoto in 1974.
The session was intended as a tribute to the great scholar, but it also aimed at
making his work known more widely: whereas Prof. Yabuuti has often been
compared to Joseph Needham, his work is much less widely read, even among
specialists of China — many of whom cannot read Japanese. Listeners seemed to
agree that the session had succeeded in this respect. It took place in a friendly
and informal atmosphere, one that reminded me of the seminars I have attended
in Kyoto; the presentations gave rise to a short but lively discussion.
                                                
1 Prof. Hashimoto Keizô (Kansai University, Osaka) and I organised it jointly on
behalf of ISHEASTM. We would like to acknowledge the enthusiastic support of Prof.
Juan-José Saldaña, Secretary of the Organising Committee of the XXIst ICHS.
11 In Memory of Prof. Yabuuti Kiyosi
Six speakers had been scheduled. Hashimoto Keizô     gave a brief
outline of Prof. Yabuuti's career and work,2 Yano Michio    
concentrated on his research on calendrical astronomy. Tôgô Toshihiro   
 gave a lively glimpse of his much less known research on traditional Chinese
and Japanese technologies. Tsukahara Togo     discussed the reception
and significance of his work in the Japanese community of historians of science.
Park Seong-Rae    presented his influence on the formation of the
discipline in Korea. Qu Anjing's    contribution on responses to his work
on mathematical astronomy in China could not be presented during the session,
as he was unable to attend the Congress.
The four of these papers published hereafter provide what I believe to be the
most detailed accounts of Prof. Yabuuti's scholarship available in English.
Moreover, by situating it in the historiography of East Asian science, they high-
light the significance that it still retains today. In this respect, one should note
that three of them have been written by scholars of the second generation, who
do not belong to the "Kyoto school of history of Chinese science." I invite all
readers, but especially those who cannot read Japanese and/or who believe
astronomy to be an awfully difficult and technical subject, to read all four contri-
butions.
One feature is brought out in the four of them, a feature which had struck me
from my own, limited acquaintance with Prof. Yabuuti's work: his scholarship
exemplifies the fruitfulness of crossing boundaries. This began with his own
interest in the history of science: after a scientific training, he turned to sinology.
Accordingly, his methodology combined applying his understanding of astron-
omy to analyse the technicalities of ancient sources on the one hand, and on the
other using the tools of philology, social history, and sometimes anthropology, to
investigate these sources. This enabled him to fully reconstruct their signifi-
cance. Reading his works, it is hard to believe that at the time when he was writ-
ing them, many of his colleagues around the world were engaged in the "inter-
nalist vs. externalist" controversy. Merging rather than opposing the two
approaches is often regarded as novel nowadays; but in fact it is one of the
strengths of Prof. Yabuuti's work. In keeping with this synthetic approach, he
had an impressive talent for presenting his readers with both "big pictures" and
detailed analyses. It was precisely this feature which prompted me to undertake
the translation of his brief introduction to Chinese mathematics, Chûgoku no
sûgaku.3 This work can still be read fruitfully by those who know nothing about
China and very little about mathematics —that is, the vast majority of historians
of science in the world today—, while proposing a coherent vision that can
appeal to specialists.
                                                
2 See his "Obituary," EASTM 17 (2000), pp. 10-14.
3 Yabuuti Kiyosi, Une histoire des mathématiques chinoises (Paris: Belin, 2000). See
also the review by Alexeï Volkov in this issue.
12 EASTM 18 (2001)
Another type of boundary that Prof. Yabuuti repeatedly and purposely
crossed in doing his research was the so-called cultural boundary. Mainly a spe-
cialist of China, he never allowed China to define the limits of his interests.
Neither did he use the simplistic "Zhong-wai"   dichotomy, which opposes
China to the rest of the world, and functions exactly in the same way as
"Eurocentrism" in the history of science. Quite to the contrary, he showed that
the development of astronomy in China entailed successive contacts with
"Western" civilisations, that is, India, Islam, and Europe. In another direction, he
also argued that science as it developed in Japan and in Korea could only be
understood in the light of interactions with China. Here again, his coherent
global vision has lost none of its strength and relevance.
In conclusion, I should like to express my hope that the Memorial Session,
and the publication of the following contributions, might be followed by other
efforts towards a more widespread understanding of Prof. Yabuuti's work. This
is only part of a much-needed endeavour to make scholarship about East Asia
and from East Asia more widely known around the world.


Presentation

Vogel, Hans Ulrich

7Note from the Editor
A substantial part of issue 18 of EASTM is again dedicated to the memory of the
late Professor Yabuuti Kiyosi who died in June last year. Catherine Jami will
introduce us to a number of papers which were delivered in Mexico City in a
special memorial session for this great Japanese scholar held during the XXIst
International Congress of History of Science (8-14 July, 2001). This session was
organised by herself and Hashimoto Keizô. It included Prof. Hashimoto's obitu-
ary, which we have already published in the last issue. The four additional con-
tributions comprise the accounts of Yano Michio on Yabuuti as a historian of
exact sciences, of Qu Anjing on the influence of Yabuuti's work on Chinese
historians of ancient Chinese mathematical astronomy, and of Tsukahara Togo
on Yabuuti's excursions into the history of Korean and Japanese sciences and
their role in his understanding and explanation of the history of Chinese science.
In addition, Tôgô Toshihiro discusses, in the fourth contribution, the interesting
aspect of Yabuuti's field-researches of traditional Japanese technology.
Moreover, this issue includes a book review written by Alexeï Volkov on
Catherine Jami's French translation of Yabuuti's Chûgoku no sûgaku (Mathemat-
ics in China). Finally, let me also mention that in one of the next issues we will
present a complete bibliography of the works of Professor Yabuuti. This
bibliography, which has been painstakingly compiled by Tôgô Toshihiro, will
complete our appraisal of the life and work of this eminent historian of science.
We trust that all this helps to make Yabuuti's contributions more widely known
and to induce scholars to pay even more attention to his research by reading his
work.1
Apart from a number of book reviews dealing with such subjects as the
history of Chinese mathematics, medicine, and metallurgy, the history of Korean
astronomy, and modern Chinese science and technology policies, the second
major part of this issue contains two important articles, one on the history of
Chinese metallurgy, the other on the changes and evolution of acu-moxa
concepts in Tang and Song China. The first is by Donald B. Wagner, who
presents his newest findings on the history of blast-furnaces in Song and Yuan
China. This article deals with innovations in the design of blast furnaces, the
wide-spread adoption of water power for creating the blast, and the use of coal
and coke as fuel. It approaches this topic also from a comparative perspective by
presenting details of early European blast furnace designs as well as those from
the traditional Chinese iron industry of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In
                                                
1 It may be mentioned that another great scholar in the history of East Asian science,
namely, Nakayama Shigeru, paid homage to Yabuuti Kiyosi during the Ninth
International Conference on the History of Science in China, City University of Hong
Kong, October 9-12, 2001. He delivered a speech there about the "Yabuuti Paradigm in
Chinese Science."
8 EASTM 17 (2000)
his usual solid and scholarly manner, the author presents us a full account not
only of the textual evidence, but also of all those archaeological remains that
throw light on these topics, underpinned by a full grasp of the respective
metallurgical and chemical particularities involved. The questions discussed by
Wagner are of importance for the history of Chinese technology, but touch also
such areas as the supply conditions of fuel, deforestation, and the ever growing
demand for both wrought-iron and cast-iron implements and objects, including
agricultural tools, ordinary cooking pots, pans for salt boiling, and coins.
The second article is written by Asaf Goldschmidt, who traces changes in
acu-moxa therapy during the transition from the Tang to the Song dynasties. By
comparing the contents of six texts surviving from this period, the author
attempts to examine changes in these manuscripts available to contemporary
acu-moxa practitioners. "Acu-moxa therapy" is defined as a specific group of
traditional Chinese clinical techniques designed to stimulate – mostly by
acupuncture and moxibustion – specific loci on the human body in order to
obtain the desired therapeutic effect. The author first provides us with a detailed
analysis of the contents of the six different texts. Thereafter he especially
highlights the differences between these texts in a topical way. The changes
between the Tang and Sung texts referred to include not only the organisation of
the acu-points and the extent of discussion regarding the circulation tracts, but
also the differing degree of standardisation and the use of technical aids (like
bronze models and illustrations). Moreover, the author demonstrates
convincingly that basic anatomical knowledge began to play a more important
role during the Song period. The Song texts were more systematically organised
and better equipped with various methodological tools. In addition, they
provided a much more substantial and elaborate presentation of classical medical
doctrines. This was probably not only due to the spread of printing during the
Song, but also to the active role played by the government in sponsoring the
publication of medical texts.
As a preview, let me announce that the next number of EASTM will be a
special issue on traditional Vietnamese military technology. C. Michele
Thompson will act as our guest editor. The forays into this area will deal with
Coa Loa, Thu'c Phan and the "magic" of early Vietnamese military technology
(Marylinn Larew), with "flaming tigers" and "burning dragons" or important
elements of early modern Vietnamese military technology (George Dutton), with
the Vietnamese adaptation of foreign military technology (Nyuyen Thé Anh),
and with Vietnamese traditional medicine and its role in nationalism and in the
organisation and development of the Viet Minh medical corps (C. Michelle
Thompson). This special issue, which will be ready in February 2002, will
hopefully inaugurate a new era for EASTM and encourage the publication of
other special issues in the near future. It is encouraging that during the XXIst
International Congress of History of Science (Mexico City, 8-14 July, 2001) and
the Ninth International Conference on the History of Science in China (City
University of Hong Kong, October 9-12, 2001) a number of colleagues
9expressed an interest, sometimes in quite strong terms, in taking responsibility
for producing a special issue on a subject of their interest. We indeed look
forward to these new collective contributions.
Again, I am much indebted to Jutta Rall-Niu, John P. C. Moffett and Michael
Schön for their reliable help and great efforts in the production of the journal. It
is really a tremendous experience, pleasure, and reward to carry out
collaborative work in such a harmonious and productive way. My thanks
naturally also go to the contributors to this issue, the members of the Local
Advisory Board, Editorial Committee and ISHEASTM, as well as to all other
colleagues who have responded cordially and patiently to our relentless requests
and inquiries and who have supported us in one way or another. Unfortunately,
in spite of all this great backing, we again did not succeed in producing this
number of EASTM in a more timely way. This is mainly due to the fact that the
problems to be solved in the interests of maintaining quality are often quite
complex and time-consuming. Yet we hope that the contents of this and other
forthcoming issues of EASTM will compensate the reader to a certain extent for
their patience.
Hans Ulrich Vogel
Seminar für Sinologie und Koreanistik
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen


Note from the Editor

Cover

Paik, Songjun

134 EASTM 18 (2001)
Park Seong-Rae, Portents and Politics in Korean History. Korean Studies Series
No. 7. Seoul: Jimoondang Publishing Company, 1998. 293 pp.
Paik Sungjong
[Paik Sungjong is Professor of Korean history at Sogang University in Seoul.
Before his move to Seoul in 1999 he taught history, culture and language of
Korea at Tübingen University in Germany for several years. He has written
numerous papers and books including A Social History of Korea (1994 in
German, 1996 in Korean: Han'guk sahoesa yon'gu) and German Architect E.
Ressel's Trip to North Korea 1956-1958 (2000 in Korean: Tongdok top'yonsu
Ressel-ui pukhan ch'uok). Recently, he edited a book on micro history, Father,
who am I? (2000 in Korean: Aboji nan nuguyeyo). Moreover, together with his
wife, Chang Hyunsook, he translated Micro History - Macro History (ed. by
Jürgen Schlumbohm, 1997 in English, German, and French) into Korean
(Misisawa kosisa).]
In pre-modern times Koreans not only observed unusual phenomena in nature,
but also were concerned by portents carrying certain messages to them from
Heaven. In Confucian tradition, portents were caused by the actions of man,
whereas in the early Christian West they were caused by God. According to the
Confucianists, the Korean king was seen as the Son of Heaven within his
domain and his actions were thus responsible for portents. Portents included
such phenomena as solar or lunar eclipses, solar haloes, daytime darkness, hazy
sun, sun-spots, comets and novae, meteors, lightning and thunder, earthquakes,
drought, locusts, hen-turned-cock, and dragons, among many other things.
In his recently published monograph, Portents and Politics in Korean
History, Professor Park, author of many other books on the history of science,
investigates the changes that took place in Korean portentology. The study of
this Korean historian is based on about 15,500 portents listed in the major
sources of Korean history, including Samguk Sagi     (History of the
Three Kingdoms and Great Silla, trad. dated 57 BC - 935 AD), Koryosa  
 History of the Koryo Dynasty, 918-1392), and the Choson Wangjo Sillok 
     (Veritable Records of the Choson Dynasty, 1392-1910) up to
1500. Even though the book is almost the same as the author's Ph.D. dissertation
at the University of Hawaii completed in 1977 (the title of Park's dissertation
was "Portents and Politics in Early Yi Korea, 1392-1519"), its delayed
publication can be justified because of the almost complete lack of scholarly
advancement in the field since the late 1970s.
Theories of portents, as they had developed in Han China, reached Korea for
the first time during the fourth century and were then applied to Korean society.
Tung Chung-shu’s (179?-104? BC) interpretation of portents was first of all a
political philosophy in which every portent was viewed as a result of political
failures in this world. Before the coming of Chinese portentology, Koreans had
135 Reviews
interpreted portents in their own ways, but the nature and time of the recorded
portents are very often unclear. Professor Park's research informs us that
portentology was well-established in Korea by at least the eleventh century, if
not before. To exorcise portents, Koreans practised, until the fifteenth century, a
mixture of Confucian, Buddhist, and shamanistic prayers and rituals. Thereafter,
however, Neo-Confucian rituals became more and more dominant.
After a critical survey of research sources (Chapter 1) and a brief
categorisation of various portents in Korean history (Chapter 2), the author starts
to examine the different and changing attitudes toward various kinds of portents
in Korean history, first during the Koryo dynasty (Chapter 3), then in the early
Choson dynasty (Chapter 4). The most remarkable things Park shows us in his
book are three mutually interrelated historical transitions, that is, the shifting of
the centre of power from the grip of the monarch to the hands of the scholar-
officials; the change in the view of portents from "political portentology" to
"ethocratic portentism," and the complete change of the Korean Confucian
tradition into Neo-Confucianism.
A number of minor short-comings of this book have to be mentioned. First,
Professor Park does not discuss portents and political divinations which often
played an important role in many rebellions and religious movements. His
research is strictly restricted on the portentology of the ruling elite.
Second, the role of Buddhist monks in geomancy and prediction is over-
estimated, when Park says that up to the early Choson period this was a tradition
that was primarily the preserve of Buddhist monks. For instance, Park maintains
that the key figures in the move of the capital were Buddhist monks. Thus, in his
view it was Muhak  , Royal Preceptor of the founder of the Choson dynasty,
who played the key role in the move of the dynasty’s capital from Kaesong to
Seoul (p. 156). Based on my own investigation, however, I am inclined to argue
that it was special officers in the palace responsible for geomancy, prediction
and astrology that mainly contributed to the preservation of the discipline’s rich
tradition. Together with some ministers who understood portentology, these
specialists were the key-figures when the move of the capital was discussed.
Third, Park’s book contains a number of misprints and misleading
translations of terms. In case of a reprint, their correction would certainly ensure
a more comfortable reading. Some examples may suffice here:
p. 21: dvision - division;
p. 26: Myo/ngjong - Myong/jong;
p. 26: king. Yejong - King Yejong;
p. 129: Chu Nsi - Chu Hsi.
The above mentioned minor problems do not, however, detract from the worth
of this pioneering research undertaken by Professor Park. Three points may be
especially highlighted:
136 EASTM 18 (2001)
First, his new interpretation of the literati purges in the early Choson period
deepens our historical understanding. According to the author, these literati
purges were closely related to Neo-Confucian portentology. Neo-Confucian
scholars, who emerged as a strong and influential political force in the late
fifteenth century, built their "constitution" upon their own type of portentology.
Their severe remonstrances with the throne were made possible by the
occurrence of portents. This, eventually, led to the literati purge in 1504
executed by King Yonsan  (reigned 1494-1506), who embodied an attitude
of strict anti-portentology.
Second, Professor Park's investigation clarifies Korea's long historical
process of Neo-Confucianisation, as well as the nature of various types of
portent-ology. The rise of Confucian scholarship since the eleventh century
weakened the position of the established Korean traditional exorcistic practices,
above all shamanism, although their suppression was not systematic. Specific
prognost-ication and specific exorcism by shamans for an individual portent,
which had been practiced all through Korean history to that time, was gradually
giving way to a more generalised Confucian interpretation of portents in political
terms, that is, in the tradition of Tung Chung-shu's portentology relating one
incident in human affairs to one portent according to the Five Phases theory. The
main response to portents was, however, still religious and not political, because
until the early thirteenth century each portent was prognosticated and exorcised
on an individual basis. It was only during the closing years of the Koryo dynasty
that a remarkable historical change took place, that is, a sudden outburst of
Confucian rationalism which suddenly expressed itself in a fierce anti-Buddhist
and anti-shamanistic campaign against the traditional procedures for dynastic
rejuvenation, including proposals for moving the capital. Chong To-jon   
(died 1398), chief architect of the Neo-Confucian Choson dynasty, was in
reality, as Professor Park successfully proves, not a Neo-Confucian. Chong's
idea of Heaven, and his efforts to limit royal power by placing the king above
the actual execution of daily politics, are just like Tung Chung-shu's. In the same
tradition, however, King T'aejong  (reigned 1400-1418) set a new model -
the model of a king who actually rules as much as he reigns. For the Chinese
scholar Chu Hsi   (1130-1200), synthesiser of Neo-Confucianism, portents
became a barometer by which to measure the degree of achievement of moral
principle in a given society, mostly as a mirror for the highest representative of
the society, that is, the emperor. In Neo-Confucian portentology, portents
prompted the throne to solicit counsel. This means that portents began to serve
more often as occasions for unbridled criticism of the throne by scholar-officials.
The rise of Neo-Confucianism in Korea led to a new era in terms of
portentology: Tung Chung-shu's portentology was definitely passé by King
Songjong’s   (reigned 1469-1494) reign. In the sixteenth century, Kim
Chong  , a Neo-Confucian scholar, rejected any specific relation between
heavenly portents and human affairs. According to Kim, only the cultivation of
royal virtue could mitigate portents. The king was no longer a priest who had to
137 Reviews
"please Heaven," but more and more became first of all the teacher of his people
– a role which he had to exert by serving as the model of human morality.
Consequently, a model king had to be receptive to the scholar-officials’ criticism
of his government and policies. Under these circumstances, remonstrance
became a rapidly growing institution with ever increasing influence.
Third, and last, Professor Park’s research strongly suggests that well-
accepted theories among Korean historians, such as the seventeenth-century
crisis theory of Professor Yi T'ae-chin   , may be quite wrong. Yi
emphasised the uniqueness of the seventeenth-century records of portents when
compared with other periods of the Choson dynasty. He did this in order to find
corroboration for the existence of a global low-temperature climate during the
seventeenth century which might explain the turbulent political disturbances
during that century all around the world. Professor Park argues, however, that
analysing the portent data for scientific purposes, such as meteorological and
astronomical research, cannot be very productive because of the incomplete
character of the sources. The author of the book provides a lot of evidence that
Korean historians in traditional times recorded certain portents while omitting
others. As a matter of fact, kings often wanted to prevent the astronomers from
voicing their opinions during the occurrences of unfavourable portents. (Cf. Park
1998, pp. 29, 33, 39, 64, and 203)
In this book, the author also raises the important question of whether
astronomical knowledge was used for agriculture during the fifteenth century.
During the rule of King Sejong   (reigned 1418-1450), astronomy and
calendar making flourished, a development which modern scholars have usually
ascribed to its importance in agriculture. But Park states that astronomical
observation had little to do with agricultural productivity, for the development of
instruments concentrated on increasing observation of heavenly movements and
making this observation more precise. The degree of precision astronomers were
aiming at was far above what was needed for agriculture. Exact timing was also
the most important matter in sacrificial rites (pp. 199-200).
My brief examination of Park’s new book makes clear that the author
deserves to be congratulated for the publication of his life-long work. This book,
the publication of which has been delayed for so long, will not only be very
helpful for Asian historians of science, but also for students and scholars in
many other disciplines in Asian studies including religion, politics, and
sociology.


Park Seong-Rae, Portents and Politics in Korean History 

Berke, Heinz

Wiedemann, Hans G.

The Chemistry and Fabrication of the Anthropogenic Pigments Chinese Blue and Purple in Ancient China

Hsu, Elisabeth

156 EASTM 17 (2000)
Kuriyama Shigehisa, The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of
Greek and Chinese Medicine. New York: Zone Books, 340 p.
Elisabeth Hsu
[Elisabeth Hsu is lecturer in Medical Anthropology at the University of Oxford.
She is author of The Transmission of Chinese Medicine and editor of the forth-
coming third volume in the Needham Research Institute series on Innovation in
Chinese Medicine.]
Shigehisa Kuriyama's Expressiveness of the Body is a delight to read for anyone
wishing to get a fresh look at the anthropology and history of the body, 'Chinese
medicine,' and the occidental traditions of medicine that can be traced to Galen
and the Hippocratic writings. The book is not only imaginative and insightful in
content, but also well written and richly illustrated. It is divided into three parts:
styles of touching, styles of seeing, and styles of being. The major theme of the
book thus concerns ways in which the body is perceived and ways in which per-
ceptions of the body are expressed, and this is done by comparing and contrast-
ing themes of interest in the medical practices and theories that evolved in the
geographic regions of China and Greece.
The first part of the book concerns the topic of the author's doctoral research
on pulse diagnostics in Greek and Chinese medicine, completed thirteen years
earlier. Kuriyama identifies as sources of 'classical Greek medicine' treatises
spanning from the Hippocratic writings of the fifth to sixth century B.C. to the
works of Galen, composed five hundred years later, and he points to an impor-
tant change that occurred within this time span: the emergence of pulse diagnos-
tics. The emergence of the notion of 'pulse' is closely linked to Greek anatomical
knowledge, says Kuriyama, to "the swell and fall of the artery." By contrast, the
Chinese 'pulse' mo  (or mai) is not primarily related to the activities of the
heart but conceived as "a multiplicity of vital streams." Also, Kuriyama contin-
ues, while Greek medicine distinguished between structure and function—artery
and pulse—, the Chinese mo encompasses both: "The mo moves" and is simulta-
neously that which "dams up the nourishing qi." The gist of the argument is
straightforward: "The Chinese doctors knew the body differently because they
felt it differently." They also used a different language for speaking about touch.
Kuriyama contrasts Galen's attempt to speak in terms of "crisp categories, such
as size, speed, rhythm, and frequency—the geometrical logic of space, time, and
number," with what modern Europeans called "fanciful metaphors" of the Chi-
nese. Thus, Herophilos and Galen described touch with an emphasis on rhythm,
which Kuriyama contrasts to "the world of palpation in China—a dense, tangled
mesh of interrelated, interpenetrating sensations."
Part II, which is about styles of seeing, continues with contrasting particular
aspects of the body in European and Chinese medical traditions: the emphasis on
157 Reviews
muscularity, which is correlated with individual agency and wilfulness, is op-
posed to the interest in colour, se, or more generally, in the appearance and facial
expression of a person, which recalls the contemplation of flowers. Kuriyama's
observations can be viewed as providing a further facet to a theme raised earlier
by Haudricourt, who traced the Occidental notions of agency to the middle East-
ern pastoral life style and contrasted those with the attitude of the Chinese agri-
culturalist.
Part III opposes the emphasis on blood-letting as an important cure in Euro-
pean medical traditions, which stems from "an equation of life and blood," to
that on wind and breath in Chinese ones. Not that Kuriyama only draws
contrasts - he points to the importance of pneuma in classical Greece and to that
of blood in China; his focus is on the relative emphasis on certain culturally
specific concepts for describing the body and notions of self.
As becomes apparent from the above, Kuriyama's comparative stance allows
him to highlight distinctive aspects of the medical traditions he discusses. He
does not account for the various medical traditions in the two geographic areas
of China and Europe in a chronological way nor does he show much interest in
working out what exactly the tensions were between the different traditions,
what the interdependencies and how complexities in change were brought about.
He likes to jump across the ages, and although he often acknowledges that
changes took place over time and shows awareness of the variation between
different traditions within one cultural complex, one nevertheless feels uneasy
about the way in which text excerpts from very different traditions and ages are
collected in support of a particular argument. Such comparison culturalises dif-
ference and essentialises culture.
One could quibble about details. Thus, when Kuriyama says Chinese physi-
cians used terms coined in the Han dynasty "confidently and consistently for two
millennia," and contrasts this with the "demons that haunted the European pulse
taker," he does not seem to draw a distinction between word form, which may
well have remained unaltered, and word meaning, which certainly was modified
even if those changes may not have been overtly discussed. Moreover, one may
question whether the visual representation of the pulses in a seventeenth-century
Japanese edition is a product of culture transfer or whether, as Kuriyama seems
to assume, it was contained already in the writings of its thirteenth-century au-
thor, Shi Fa . Or, in the light of Vesalius' depiction of muscles, one should
point out that jin  in early medical writings had the meaning of 'muscle' (rather
than 'sinew'), which may be taken as an indication that ideas of individual
agency prevailed also in China before correlative cosmology became predomi-
nant. There are other details of this kind which attract the attention of the spe-
cialist but do not seem to be a matter of concern to Kuriyama himself. Having
said this, it is important to value the book for what it does rather than finding
fault with what it does not claim to do. The book is highly recommended for
whoever wishes to enjoy an imaginative approach to the history of the body .


Kuriyama Shigehisa, The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine

Golas, Peter J.

134 EASTM 17 (2000)
Donald B. Wagner, The Traditional Chinese Iron Industry and its Modern Fate.
Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Report series, No. 32. Richmond, Surrey:
Curzon Press, 1997. xii, 106 pp.
Peter J. Golas
[Peter J. Golas is professor of history at the University of Denver. His volume
on mining for Science and Civilisation in China has recently appeared and he is
currently researching the history of technological illustration in China.]
This solid little book, a revised and considerably expanded version of an article
originally published in this journal (Vol. 12 (1995), pp. 138-61), is a tour-de-
force. In a mere 79 pages of text, the author describes in some detail the Chinese
iron industry of late imperial times while also providing a nuanced discussion of
the changes the industry underwent in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in
response to foreign competition, war and revolution, and the resulting changes in
the Chinese economy. His main concern is to show "the ways in which techno-
logical choices interact with other historical factors" (p. 1).
As in his volume on the Dabieshan iron industry1 and in the monumental
Iron and Steel in Ancient China,2 Wagner insists on a thorough understanding of
the techniques of iron production as the necessary prelude to comprehending the
iron industry in its larger context. Even with his finely-honed ability to describe
technological matters with considerable clarity, there are points at which the
complexities of the technology might easily overwhelm the story. Here, Wagner
wisely relegates the details to boxes separate from the main text, a feast for those
keenly interested in the technology itself but easily skimmed by those whose
main interests lie elsewhere. (On the other hand, there are times when most read-
ers could have used a bit more technological explanation, as when we are told
that the "roundabout" "indirect process" is the most efficient way to produce
wrought iron (p. 13) but are left to wonder just why that is so.)
In a concise analysis that nevertheless displays considerable breadth and
depth, the author focuses on four regional components of the traditional iron
industry in China, each with its distinctive structures and techniques responding
to its raw material endowment, its labor force, and its market possibilities: (1)
the Dabieshan mountains at the intersection of the borders of Henan, Hubei and
Anhui, where a small-scale iron industry was crucial to an economy marked by
severe poverty; (2) Sichuan with its large-scale ironworks and the largest blast
                                                
1 Donald B. Wagner, Dabieshan: Traditional Chinese Iron-production Techniques
Practiced in Southern Henan in the Twentieth Century (London & Malmö: Curzon Press,
1985). The discussion in the present volume is able to benefit from sources not available
to him when writing that work (p. 15).
2 Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993.
135 Reviews
furnaces in China, all made possible by a large but isolated market; (3) Shanxi,
whose considerable production for the north China market relied on the use of a
distinctive crucible smelting process by large numbers of small producers; and
(4) Guangdong, where one sees a unique dual-sector industry with large-scale
and small-scale ironworks. After three introductory chapters that describe his
aims for this book, discuss the changing "economic geography" of traditional
iron production during the 19th and 20th centuries (right up to the Great Leap
Forward), and provide a brief overview of traditional iron production techniques,
Wagner devotes a separate chapter to each of his regions. In these chapters, he
first discusses in some detail the technology of iron production in that region and
then moves on to relate the technology to the structure of the industry in the con-
text of the economic and geographical conditions in which it found itself. A
short concluding chapter neatly summarizes the main points of the story.
Wagner attributes the general decline of the Chinese iron industry during the
19th and early 20th centuries above all to competition from cheap imported iron.
What makes this book so useful, however, is his explanation of how and why
this happened in different contexts (and, indeed, largely did not happen in Da-
bieshan). Guangdong, for example, found its large, highly-capitalized ironworks
particularly vulnerable, as was true also in other parts of China. Wagner argues
persuasively that this rather counter-intuitive phenomenon can be explained in
large measure by the fact that big ironworks had to have access to an extensive
market that, in turn, was impossible without good transportation facilities. Those
very same transportation advantages, however, typically made possible the pene-
tration of the market by low-priced foreign imports, with which the Chinese
could not compete.
This book, despite its size, does not shy away from some very big questions.
For example, Wagner argues that technological "progress" need not be defined
exclusively by the implemention of innovations. Looking at the question "in
another, more detached, sense" (?), he suggests viewing as "progress" the aban-
donment of theoretically best practices when economic circumstances may call
for reversion to earlier, less "sophisticated" methods if these changes "make for a
more efficient iron industry in the specific context in which it must function" (p.
46). An interesting point, if not beyond question. One wonders exactly what is
meant by "efficiency," and what is the link between efficiency and quality. The
pressure of foreign competition, as the book notes, brought a decline in the qual-
ity of iron produced in places like Shansi which were forced to make technologi-
cal changes, usually leading to lower quality, in a struggle to reduce their costs.
One can also appreciate, while reserving assent to, some of Wagner's more
speculative suggestions. We learn, for example, that the small-scale technologies
of Dabieshan and Guangdong, well-adapted to the conditions in which they
found themselves and largely impervious to foreign competition, seem to have
undergone little change in the 19th and 20th centuries. Wagner suggests that, with
the loss of imported iron in World War I which sent iron prices in China soaring,
the large-scale industries based on production techniques of an earlier period
136 EASTM 17 (2000)
might have made a comeback but were unable to do so because the earlier tech-
nology had been forgotten. This is an interesting and plausible speculation, but it
relies only on the Guangdong case. We will need more evidence before we can
assess whether it can serve to describe what happened in iron production centers
such as Yunnan and Hunan (p. 30), which are not treated in this book.
Special thanks should also go to the publisher of this volume. Ample in-line
Chinese characters, notes at the bottom of the page; 29 illustrations; and a very
nice map including all modern place names mentioned, make the book a pleasure
to read, even in a rather small font. Would that the publishers had chosen a less
glossy paper, thereby sparing the reader that annoying glare in all but the most
ideal lighting conditions.


Donald B. Wagner, The Traditional Chinese Iron Industry and its Modern Fate

East Asian
Science, Technology,
and Medicine
Number 17
2000
An annual journal dedicated to the study of traditional and modern
East Asian science, technology, and medicine.
Editor:
Hans Ulrich Vogel
Seminar für Sinologie und Koreanistik
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
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Local Advisory Board:
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Dieter Eikemeier, Seminar für Sinologie und Koreanistik, Tübingen
Viktoria Eschbach-Szabo, Seminar für Japanologie, Tübingen
Hermann Kogelschatz, Seminar für Sinologie und Koreanistik, Tübingen
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Bridie Andrews, Department of the History of Science, Harvard University
Francesca Bray, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa
Barbara
Christopher Cullen, Department of History, SOAS, University of London
Benjamin A. Elman, Center for Chinese Studies, University of California, Los
Angeles
Charlotte Furth, Department of  History, University of Southern California, Los
Angeles
Keizo Hashimoto, Faculty of Sociology, Kansai University, Osaka
Yi-Long Huang, Institute of History, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu
Sanwoon Jeon, History of Science, Sungshin Women’s University, Seoul
Catherine Jami, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris
Yung Sik Kim, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University
Dieter Kuhn, Institut für Kulturwissenschaften Ost- und Südasiens - Sinologie,
Universität Würzburg
Angela Ki Che Leung, Sun Yat-Sen Institute for Social Sciences and Philosophy,
Academia Sinica, Taipei
Bing Liu, Institute of  Science, Technology and Society, Tsinghua University,
Beijing
Dun Liu, Institute for the History of Natural Science, Academia Sinica, Beijing
Morris Low, Department of Asian Languages and Studies, University of
Queensland, Brisbane
Georges Métailié, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris
Yunli Shi, Department of the History of  Science and Scientific Archaeology,
University  of  Science and Technology of China, Hefei
Nathan Sivin, Department of the History and Sociology of Science, University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Michele C. Thompson, Department of History, Southern Connecticut State
University, New Haven
Togo Tsukahara, History and Philosophy of  Science, Technology and Medicine,
Kobe University
Paul U. Unschuld, Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, Ludwig-Maximilians-
Universität München
Donald B. Wagner, Department of Asian Studies, University of Copenhagen
Tadashi Yoshida, Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University, Sendai
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Presentation

Note from the Editor

Cover

Park Seong-Rae, Portents and Politics in Korean History

The Chemistry and Fabrication of the Anthropogenic Pigments Chinese Blue and Purple in Ancient China

Cover

Kuriyama Shigehisa, The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine

Donald B. Wagner, The Traditional Chinese Iron Industry and its Modern Fate

Editorial

Obituary – Dr. Yabuuti Kiyosi (1906-2000)

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